Contextual Background: 

In Unit 5 of MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise (taught November – February annually), I deliver lessons and tutorials mostly online apart from 16 hours of teaching delivered face-to-face as part of an intensive teaching weekend. There is the opportunity for me to set homework for each of the 8 sessions. 

Current Strategies

Currently the homework I set involves reading which I don’t always refer to again during the lessons. For one of the lessons, I pre-recorded an interview with an external guest speaker and asked the students to watch it and formulate questions which could be addressed in class. This was done as a time saving measure to enable them to get the benefit of the guest speaker’s knowledge without taking up class time. It also added variety to the text based readings.

Evaluation

Currently, I don’t feel that I am making the most of the opportunity to set homework which will engage the students and support their learning. With better pre-planning, I could find ways to better integrate the homework into the weekly lessons which would create accountability and support learning. This brings to mind the diagram of assessment patterns by Russell (2010) which suggest that a level of continuous assessment and feedback across a module may be more effective for learning than leaving it all to the end. With no accountability, with the current arrangements it is entirely feasible that students will cram the reading at the end of the unit in order to complete their assignment.

The various strategies used by tutors on the PgCert to encourage reading ahead of each workshop have been interesting to observe and I definitely think there are strategies I can utilise for my course. For example, allocating certain readings to certain students and asking them to report back on key points the following week. This is also an efficient way for students to get a flavour of a variety of readings.

One of my challenges with the readings is that a number of them are stipulated in the course handbook but they are not all relevant to the content I am delivering as it has changed over the years. The course is still fairly new (6 years old) and the content is under continous refinement.

The strategy of pre-recording an interview worked well in the sense that it was time efficient but I felt that I could have made better use of the resource when it came to the class itself. If I was to repeat it, I could set some specific questions for the students to answer after watching the recording rather than anticipating a more general discussion which in reality wasn’t particularly rewarding. In general, I could improve the planning and design of homework tasks.

Moving Forwards

The course is designed to fit around the working life of the students and they are often time-poor so I am conscious of not setting a large volume of homework. In looking at how some of the other tutors on the course set homework, there are learnings to be taken. For example, some tutors ask the students to write a blog post every week to reflect on their learning. Others set readings linked to specific writing or presentation tasks. For example, asking students to complete the readings and selecting specific students to present to the class at the start of the following week on a topic linked to the reading. However, with an online (recorded) class attendance can be an issue and there is a risk that asking students to present may encourage them not to come to the live class and to simply watch the recording instead! For the UK cohort, I could utilise this strategy ahead of the intensive teaching weekend which could be effective in getting them to engage with the content early on (the Intensive weekend is week 2).

Having spoken to the course leader about homework, I have been advised to speak to the learning technologist for the course for advice as he often has good ideas about diverse homework tasks so I intend to follow this up.

In line with Biggs’ (2003) theory of aligned teaching for constructive learning, it is what the student does rather than what the teacher does that leads to effective learning. This highlights the need for effective homework tasks which require the student to undertake self-directed learning and actively ‘do’ something rather than simply absorb information. 

I haven’t had the chance to experiment with tactics with regards to homework as I teach my unit between November and February. Instead I have scheduled time to review on a week by week basis the homework tasks from 2023 with a view to revising and improving them for 2024. I plan to include a range of different activities, some more involved, some fairly quick to complete but each week will have a meaningful task attached to it. At the end of the unit, I can seek student feedback specifically on the homework element of the unit. Although student feedback for my unit has been very positive, I feel this could help to strengthen the academic rigour of my teaching.

References: 

Russell M. (2010). Assessment Patterns: a review of the possible consequences. Biggs, J. (2003) Aligning teaching for constructing learning. 

Learning outcomes in Higher Education were introduced as a result of recommendations in the Dearing Report (1997). They are designed to clearly state what a student should have learned by the end of the course. According to the UAL course designer document, components of a learning outcome should be; an action verb to describe the behaviour which demonstrates the student’s learning,information about the context for the demonstration and how well the outcome will be demonstrated. Furthermore outcomes need to specific and clearly written, measurable and demonstrable, and aligned with what is taught and assessed, i.e. accessible, assessable and achievable. Course learning outcomes should align to the QAA subject benchmark statement or Master’s degree characteristics statement. At UAL each of the learning outcomes 

needs to be linked to at least one of the five assessment criteria:

Enquiry

Knowledge

Process

Communication

Realisation

When learning outcomes were introduced, they were met with a mixed response from educators and there is debate over whether they are a suitable way to measure success in creative education. Assessment criteria had been used with a range of gradings (unsatisfactory – excellent) since the 1950’s and so learning outcomes had to find a way to map onto these assessment criteria when they were introduced – a process which wasn’t always either smooth or meaningful. 

Benefits:

• They enable students to identify what they are expected to learn, evidence that learning and measure the skills and/or competencies they have learned on the course. (Addison, 2014)

• The use of learning outcomes can help staff to create a coherent curriculum and deliver content that is consistent and at an appropriate level (AEM course designer).
• They promote the benefit of ‘transferable’ cognitive skills gained during a course of study (Addison, 2014).
• They may lessen teacher idiosyncrasies or prejudices when it comes to marking (Addison, 2014).

Opportunities

• They can be used to encourage development by highlighting what students need to evidence in order to achieve a higher mark (Addison, 2014).
• Learning outcomes and empower students and creates transparency by placing the knowledge of what they need to achieve in their hands (Addison, 2014).

Challenges 

• Learning outcomes may not be consistently applied consistently by staff or indeed may not be fully understood by students or staff. Davies (2012) comments that in some cases, only those who write the learning outcomes fully understand them and that it can be challenging to understand the context for tutors who teach part-time as in some cases, only the course designers have a real understanding of how things fit together.
• “New or part-time teachers, for instance, have to take the module outlines at face value and make sense of them in terms of their own professional experience.” (Davies, 2012)

Limitations

• It has been argued that learning outcomes “may inhibit learning within creative domains, supporting only those students who work strategically to meet largely pre-determined, necessarily accessible outcomes” (Records 2013, via Addison 2014)
• As learning outcomes are ‘measurable’, they may not support risk-taking, creativity, inventivenes or imagination which are  all features of the creative education (Davies, 2012). For example ‘visualisation’ is neceesary for design capability but is not easily captured in a learning outcome. 
• In some cases, learning outcomes become overly generic to match with assessment criteria and therefore become less meanignful (Davies, 2012).

References:
Addison, N. (2014). Doubting learning outcomes in Higher Education contexts: from performativity towards emergence and negotiation.
Davies, A. (2012). Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem?
Currant, N., Stephens, T. and Staddon, E. University of the Arts London, Course Designer 4: Crafting Learning Outcomes, [Format – PDF], Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/190395/Course-Designer-4-Crafting-Learning-Outcomes-PDF-255KB.pdf, (Accessed: 01/03/24).

I teach a unit on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise and the course is paired with Hong Kong University. On average I have around 25 students, based in Hong Kong that I teach online. I have a teaching partner from Hong Kong University who also delivers content in person as part of my unit. The Hong Kong students tend to be working full time, often long hours, and fit their studies in around their working life during evenings and weekends. My classes with the students are scheduled for 8.30 – 10pm in line with the other units on the course. 

The classes are recorded so even though I may have 25 students registered, it would be standard for only around 12 – 14 to attend in person. When in class, it is challenging to get students to actively participate – often teacher led questions go unanswered. On occasion when I have initiated group work, I find there are usually a number of students who leave the class. Following group work, it is hard to persuade students to share their discussions with the group. 

In order to keep my classes as engaging as possible for students, I minimise the text on slides, provide interesting examples and engage students with questions and polls. I have found that polls can be a more effective way to get feedback from students on simple topics as the act of clicking a button is low-stakes for them. I could also look at the other tools contained within collaborate – for example asking them to contribute a single word answer to a shared board. Asking for regular engagement on a weekly basis may be enough to get them used to the idea of participating.

I have also spoken to colleagues for tips on how to better engage Hong Kong students. It has been suggested that if I am to pose questions, I need to provide notice so they can prepare responses in advance. A fellow tutor who is originally from China has also suggested that language may be an issue and the students may not feel confident using their microphones and speaking in English so perhaps soliciting written answers to questions may work better. 

Going forward, I intend to keep talking to colleagues about this issue. I have already had useful conversations with fellow students from the PgCert who have encountered similar challenges. I will also have a conversation with my co-tutor in Hong Kong and have a conversation with the course director about the student feedback from my unit to see if there are any further improvements I can make. I will look at the homework tasks for the unit with particular focus on the Hong Kong students to see if I help them to prepare for the sessions any further. Another tactic could be to simply lower my expectations around participation from this group and accept that they will engage with the course in a different way to the UK students. 

The task was to devise and deliver a 20 minute microteching session to facilitate object based learning. We delivered this in small groups of around 6 students. I decided to take social enterprise as the topic of my session as it’s central to the unit I teach on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise.

I used slides to provide a brief introduction to the course I teach on – I felt this was relevant as it’s an unusual structure being a 2-year masters, mostly delivered online and partnered with Hong Kong university. I also provided an introduction to social enterprise utilising some examples and providing a list of societal issues to be used as inspiration as well as some example business models. For the task, I placed a number of everyday items into a bag, split the students into two groups and asked them to select an item. They were then tasked with using the item to inspire a societal issue they would like to tackle, coming up with both an issue and a business model they could use to generate the revenue to tackle the issue. Students had 10 minutes to complete the task which was followed by feedback and discussion.

One group chose the comb and had the idea to have a pop-up hair salon offering free haircuts to the homeless, funded by profits from a regular salon. The other group chose the plug and after much debate went with the idea of ‘give one, get one’ with small kitchen appliances which could help those in need. The task was well received and both groups embraced the subject matter and gave good feedback on the task. Ideally they would have had more time for discussion and debate.

Although there was some variation in the group in terms of preference for slides, I would continue to use slides if I was to repeat the task but I may make them shorter and return back to a learning objective to round off the task. I could also add a further instruction that the object didn’t need to provide literal inspiration and could be used in a more figurative way. This was a question which was asked by the students which I had to clarify.

My session was the last of the day and I really enjoyed the opportunity to take part in the tasks set by my classmates. There was a great amount of variation; from making dumplings to learning about 3D printing. Several of the students really utilised the senses in their sessions, for example coming up with a list of adjectives to describe flip-flops or folding dough to make dumplings. This wasn’t something that I utilised so much in my session but perhaps it’s something to think about in terms of how the objects I used could inspire ideas. It was also interesting to provide live feedback to classmates, ensuring any constructive points were delivered correctly. I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about other’s teaching practices and subject areas. Building a better network at UAL has been one of the joys of the course so far!

Edit: following my tutorial with Lindsay we discussed feedback and Lindsay told me about a couple of techniques which may be useful when working with groups. For example, asking students to provide ‘2 stars and a wish’ or asking for very perscriptive feedback. This could be useful in the context of my online teaching and also in-person presentation sessions.

The first workshop for the PgCert at UAL took place on 12th January 2024 – a great way to start the year! I really enjoyed the day and in particular the opportunity to meet with and get to know colleagues from lots of different parts of UAL. As an associate lecturer who largely teaches online, I don’t always have a strong sense of belonging at UAL so the opportunity to be part of this course is really helpful in getting to know the institution better. Being an arts university, my fellow students are a very creative bunch so I’m looking forward to learning with them over the coming months.

We did a range of different exercises as part of the day which really got me thinking about interactive teaching methods. I made notes on several devices which could be useful when programming my intensive weekend for my course (MA Arts & Cultural Enterprise). For example, passing around a ball of string to make sure everyone has a chance to talk and also getting people up and moving with the simple task of pinning cards on the wall.

We were asked to read one of 5 readings in advance. Mine was about an online object based learning exercise using drawings of botanical flowers to in the context of colonisation. It was quite a long read but really interesting context with a lot of useful learnings. We formed groups of 5 (each had read a different article) and were asked to share the content of the article with the group. I thought this was a really clever way to share insights into a variety of different subjects while also giving us practice in summarising articles and sharing reflections. I tend to read things fairly quickly and absorb them at a high level rather than necessarily engaging indepth with the content. I noticed how some of members of the group had very deeply engaged with their articles and spent many hours reading, digesting and making notes on them. It is a useful reminder for me to make space in my working life to engage fully with the class materials. I could see that my fellow students had gained a lot from their deep engagement with the texts.

We also leared about educational policy and how it has shifted and changed over the years which was really interesting (& slightly depressing!!) context. I am looking forward to the journey the course will lead me on over the coming months.